Tim Clayton > Quotes

“She was extremely gentle, very shy, and she was someone that as a young girl you thought was everything a princess should be. Very beautiful, very young, very calm – and yet there was a kind of nervousness about her. But the feeling inside the cathedral was just enormous. It’s a very hollow place but it was filled with so much warmth and excitement. . ”
― Tim Clayton, Diana: Story of a Princess

“The officials failed to see the danger. The photo opportunity with Diana sitting sadly alone outside the world’s most famous monument to love was laden with ironic potential. But only Diana knew that she was about to publish a tale of cruelty and neglect. Now the woman who had dreamed of marrying a Prince was happy for the world to see that the fairytale had no happy ending. Judy”
― Tim Clayton, Diana: Story of a Princess

“It happened before our very eyes, the transformation from this shy teenager, who hid beneath big hats, and hung her head, into the self-assured woman and mother, confident in her beauty. It never struck me that she was conceited about this, I think she just enjoyed being who she was, and I’m sure too, grateful for being as beautiful as she was. I really saw no evidence of vanity in her, and sometimes I looked pretty hard, because I thought – come on, nobody can really take all this without maybe their head getting turned a bit.”
― Tim Clayton, Diana: Story of a Princess

“The terrifying part, as always in this kind of thing, is that they construct the pedestal; they put you on top of it, they expect you to balance on the beastly thing without ever losing your footing, and because they have engineered the pedestal along come the demolition experts amongst them who are of the breed that enjoy breaking things down. And it is all done for a sort of vicarious entertainment . . . Maybe the wedding, because it was so well done and because it made such a wonderful, almost Hollywood-style, film, has distorted people’s view of things? Whatever the case it frightens me.”
― Tim Clayton, Diana: Story of a Princess

“I was having my dinner in Glendon Lodge, in the grounds of the City Hospital, and the receptionist came out and she said, ‘Dean, there’s a phone call for you.’ I said, ‘Who is it?’ She said, ‘It’s Diane.’ And I’ve got a sister Diane. And I said, ‘Oh, tell her I’m having me dinner, to call back later.’ She went away, she came back and she said, ‘Oh, she can’t call back.’ So I went in – finished, stopped my dinner – went and spoke on the phone and then I said, ‘Oh, hello my duck’ – I’d had a tracheotomy so I could talk then. And she said, ‘Do you know who you’re talking to?’ I said, ‘Yeah, Diane.’ And she said, ‘No, you’re talking to Princess Diana from Kensington Palace.’ Unbelievable. And then she said, ‘Are you OK, is the family OK?’ And before she went she said, ‘Is there anything you need?’ I said, ‘Yeah, there is. When you visited me I was unconscious, but now I’m conscious can you come and visit me?’ And she said, ‘Yeah, I’ll come and visit you but I don’t want no reporters or nothing, just a casual visit.”
― Tim Clayton, Diana: Story of a Princess

“He didn’t change his bachelor ways. She wanted him to stay at home with her and the children. There were tantrums and hysterics. She challenged him – it was the first time he had been challenged. It was the first time he had met his equal – he was surrounded by yes-men. Diana accused Charles’s friends of being sycophants, but she was her own worst enemy too.”
― Tim Clayton, Diana: Story of a Princess

“on 21 June 1982, Diana gave birth to William in St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington. He was two weeks early. Prince Charles watched the birth, the first royal father to do so. Whatever the bad feelings of the past few months, this was an undeniably happy and bonding moment, even”
― Tim Clayton, Diana: Story of a Princess

“She just knew that Charles wasn’t happy with her, just knew that he pined for Camilla. Given the state of his marriage, he probably did have these feelings, but that did not mean he was being unfaithful.”
― Tim Clayton, Diana: Story of a Princess

“Charles did have a busy schedule, but he set apart as much time as possible for two boys that he loved very much, as everyone who has seen them together testifies. But by now the press had their caricatures, and they were sticking with them.”
― Tim Clayton, Diana: Story of a Princess

“Diana was photographed at Thorpe Park with her sons on the water slide. ‘Charles the Absent Royal Father’ was castigated in the Mail. In stark contrast to the way Charles was raised, Diana’s sons were surrounded by maternal affection, dressed informally, taken to mingle with the people, and introduced into Diana’s charity work. She was undoubtedly deeply attached to her children and determined that they should not be as removed from real life as other royal children had been. So was her husband, although you would not have known it from the press reports.”
― Tim Clayton, Diana: Story of a Princess

“Instead of just sort of doing a very gentle regal handshake she’d go out of her way to really reach into the crowd and touch people. She was a very touchy person and that became apparent very quickly because she was touching everybody. I think she quickly worked out that this is the best way to deal with it . . . If you see the Queen doing a walkabout it’s very dignified and quite formal. She’ll walk down the edge of a barrier and she’ll take some flowers very gently and elegantly, and maybe occasionally she might shake a hand. But they normally don’t shake hands. And normally the royal ladies would always have these long white gloves on. Diana didn’t wear gloves. It was completely different.”
― Tim Clayton, Diana: Story of a Princess

“suddenly these doors burst open and the two boys came out and they were so excited. They were hopping up and down waiting for their mum and dad to come, and Diana whisked past the hand-shaking people and her whole face lit up, and she took her hat off and she scuttled down the whole length of the yacht as fast as she could and was hugging them and kissing them. Fincher’s photograph is one of the most famous ever taken of Diana, her arms outstretched, William launching himself into her embrace. She asked Fincher for a copy which she displayed in her dressing room at Kensington Palace. But it wasn’t the only picture on that roll of film. And then a few seconds behind her Prince Charles did the same thing. He came down, he was hugging and kissing the boys too. But the sad thing was that all the pictures that were used were her with her arms out, and nobody ever used a picture of him. I think he got a bad press with the children at that time. Everybody kept saying, ‘Oh, this awful father’ and everything, which wasn’t true. He’s always been a lovely father. But I think he wasn’t seen with the children and she was – and in a lot of high-profile places like Thorpe Park. And so people tended to see that and think, Where’s he? all the time.”
― Tim Clayton, Diana: Story of a Princess

“I looked at her dress and I thought, Oh no, it’s awful. Because it was all scrunched up, it looked terrible. I just remember thinking, It doesn’t look like it’s been ironed. The Emanuels reacted the same way and dashed to the rescue. Once the train was properly spread out on the carpeted steps, it looked as dazzling as the young woman who was wearing it.”
― Tim Clayton, Diana: Story of a Princess